BANGKOK: The 18-year-old Saudi asylum seeker who fled her family to
Thailand and
harnessed the power of Twitter to stave off deportation on Friday
abruptly suspended her account, with friends saying she had
received death threats.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun's attempt to flee the ultra-conservative
kingdom has been embraced by rights groups as a beacon of defiance
against repression.

Thai authorities initially threatened to deport her after she
arrived in Bangkok from Kuwait last weekend.

But armed with a smartphone and a hastily opened Twitter
account, she forced a U-turn from Thai immigration police who
handed her into the care of the UN's refugee agency as the
#SaveRahaf hashtag case bounced across the world.

Qunun alleges abuse by her family - who deny the allegations - and
rights groups also said she had renounced Islam, risking
prosecution in conservative Saudi Arabia. On Friday afternoon she
posted a final cryptic tweet on her profile saying "I have some
good news and some bad news" - shortly after her account was
deactivated.

"Rahaf received death threats and for this reason she closed her
Twitter account, please save Rahaf life," tweeted supporter
@nourahfa313, who has flanked Rahaf's social media campaign with
her own updates on Twitter.

"I understand that there have been death threats against her but I
don't know the details," said Phil Robertson from Human Rights
Watch, adding even threats from online trolls need to be taken
seriously.

Rahaf's swift use of Twitter saw her amass more than 100,000
followers within a week, highlighting her plight and allowing her
to avoid the fate of countless other refugees who are quietly sent
back home or languish in Bangkok detention centres.

Though her asylum case has moved at lightning speed the mystery over which
country will accept Rahaf remains.

Australia has dropped the strongest hints so far after the UN urged
the country to accept her but its foreign minister said this week
that it was still assessing the request.

Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters
Friday that as far as he knows there are "two or three" countries
who could offer asylum.

The Southeast Asian country is not a signatory to a convention on
refugees and asylum seekers must be referred to a third
country.

Until that happens she is under the care of UNHCR in Bangkok.

She has refused to see her father who travelled to Thailand and
expressed opposition to her resettlement.